These are the highly-principled allies whose “respect” John Kerry wants to “earn.” Maybe he should be bribing them instead? Total Officials in Bribes Probe.

Executives at French oil major Total have been detained for questioning as part of an investigation into transfers of millions of dollars in suspected bribes to win oil development rights in Russia and Iraq.

A spokeswoman for Total, the world’s fourth-largest publicly traded oil company by market value, confirmed by telephone from Paris on Monday that French investigators had raided the company’s headquarters and questioned several employees last week. But she said the probe targeted the activities of officials and not the company itself, and declined to comment further.

A spokeswoman for the French Justice Ministry refused to comment Monday.

The French daily Le Monde, which first broke news of the probe last week, cited Total’s former head of operations Jean-Michel Tournier as saying that the company had used a Geneva-based firm, Teliac SA, to funnel bribes to “certain beneficiaries” in return for gaining access to reserves in Russia and Iraq.

“Behind these beneficiaries, there was Russia and Iraq. If we had not paid, we would not have had any crude oil,” Le Monde cited Tournier as saying.